Science's 8 Greatest Unsolved Mysteries: Progress Report

In the year 2000, PM asked how eight of the most profound questions in science might (optimistically) be answered before the dawn of the 22nd century. So where are we now, a decade later? Here's the skinny on some of science's greatest mysteries—from attaining immortality and the search for alien life to traveling through time.

Science's 8 Greatest Unsolved Mysteries: Progress Report

Science's 8 Greatest Unsolved Mysteries: Progress Report

The advances in science made over the past hundred years have been nothing short of astounding: We've split the atom and gone to the moon, spliced open the genome and saved countless lives with medicines. Yet as far as we've come, we have a long way to go. We continue to grapple with realties beyond our understanding, from the inner workings of our bodies to the intrinsic mechanics of the universe.

In 2000, PM published an article pondering the great scientific challenges that we face this century: Will we finally cure cancer? Find the seat of consciousness, a "soul"? Might we even achieve immortality? Could we look beyond ourselves and create artificial life or find life elsewhere in the universe? Can we go faster than the speed of light or travel through time?

As we report now on the progress being made in these areas, we thought it appropriate to combine two challenges—the quest for the fountain of youth with that for immortality—as they have their roots in the same life-extending field. Instead, we added one of the great questions of modern-day physics: What's outside of our universe? Or to put it another way: Are there other universes? Here, then, is an overview of some of the most exciting work pursued in the service of solving science's greatest mysteries.

Will We Find a Cure for Cancer?

Will We Find a Cure for Cancer?

A million and a half Americans will be diagnosed with cancer this year, and one-third of them will succumb to it, according to the National Cancer Institute. Diet, tobacco use and other environmental factors and lifestyle choices have a well-documented role in causing many of these cancers­—significantly more so than family genetics. As PM reported 10 years ago, prevention appears to be the solution to the cancer scourge, not a miracle pill.

While new incidences and deaths from all types of malignancies have declined several percentage points over the past decade, some cancers, including melanoma, leukemia and pancreatic and kidney cancers, are statistically on the rise. Meanwhile, treatments—chemotherapy, radiation and surgery—remain woefully inadequate and unpleasant.

One new strategy for stopping cancer before it starts is to go after the mechanism many doctors have increasingly implicated in priming the pump: parasitic infections. Paul Ewald, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Louisville, believes that by 2050, as many as 95 percent of all cancers will be proved to stem partly from infection. (That figure today is just 15 to 20 percent.) Scientists already know that hepatitis viruses are linked to liver cancer; human papillomavirus (HPV) can lead to cervical, rectum, penis and head and neck cancers; infections of Helicobacter pylori, the same bacteria to blame for peptic ulcers, causes stomach cancer.

While a whole spectrum of pathogens can set our feet on the paths to cancer, Ewald says, viruses stand out as the major villain. That's because viruses have evolved to target genes involved with cell division; hijack those, and the viral invader sets itself up for a nice long stay in a host. Viruses might not necessarily spur the mutations that make cells proliferate out of control, but the viral agents can leave a cell far more vulnerable should such a mutation occur. In this way, viruses have "evolved to sabotage the barriers to cancer as a strategy for persisting within us," Ewald says.

In light of this, greater use of vaccinations and antibiotics as well as improved hygiene could significantly curb the incidence of cancer. Gardasil, the vaccine for HPV, approved in 2006, is a major step in this direction. "The best hope for safely curing and preventing cancers arises from the identification and targeting of their infectious causes," Ewald says. "If there is one thing that medical science is good at, it is controlling infection."

For those cancers that do persist, novel therapies are in works as well, including light-based, tumor-targeting drugs and "super" white blood cells that squash cancerous cells while sparing healthy ones. These have the potential to eradicate deep-seated cancers from the body without the devastating side effects of many treatments widely used today.